Collaborative Awards in Science

Collaborative Awards promote the development of new ideas and speed the pace of discovery. We fund teams of researchers, consisting of independent research groups, to work together on the most important scientific problems that can only be solved through collaborative efforts.

Where your host organisation is based:

Type of researcher:

Level of funding:

Duration of funding:

Who can apply

Collaborative Awards are for teams of researchers bringing together the relevant expertise and experience to address the most important scientific problems.

Each applicant must be essential to the proposed collaborative research and have:

Proven research expertise and experience in their field.

An academic or research post (or equivalent).

A salary for the duration of the award period. If this is not in place, your employing organisation must provide a guarantee of salary support for the duration of the award.

Members of the team must have proven experience in collaborative research and consist of independent research groups.

Team size will depend on the proposed research, but should generally have more than two applicants, and no more than seven.

Teams may be based in the same or in different organisations, and must bring different expertise or disciplines to the research question.

Applicants should usually be based at eligible organisations in the UK, Republic of Ireland, or low- or middle-income countries. However, we can make exceptions for projects that need specific expertise or resources provided by team members based in other countries.

What we're looking for

Your proposal should describe a significant piece of work that addresses the most important questions, in an area relevant to the mission of the Wellcome Trust.

You should be able to demonstrate why the scientific problem you are tackling can only be solved through an integrated, collaborative team effort.

We encourage interdisciplinary research collaborations, although they are not essential. We also encourage applications that propose interdisciplinary research across our Science, Humanities and Social Science and Innovations teams.

We will review:

the track records of all team members, relative to their career stage

the importance of your research question(s) to your field(s)

the feasibility of your proposal

the suitability of the environments in which you and your team members do the research

the time you and your team members will spend on the Collaborative Award, and how it fits in with other academic commitments.

Other schemes

Collaborative Awards in Humanities and Social Science

Supporting teams who are tackling major health-related questions in the humanities and social sciences that require a collaborative approach.

Investigator Awards in Science

A Collaborative Award can be up to £4 million and last for up to five years, but requests must be appropriate to the proposed research. Our support includes:

We will cover the salary costs of all staff, full or part time, who will work on your Collaborative Award. Staff members typically include research assistants or technicians employed on your grant. If you’re doing fieldwork or clinical studies in a low- or middle-income country, we’ll consider requests for more research staff.

We don’t usually provide a salary for any applicants for this scheme.

We don't provide studentship stipends.

Staff salaries should be appropriate to skills, responsibilities and expertise. You should ask your host organisation to use their salary scales to calculate these costs, which should include:

basic salary

employer’s contributions, including any statutory obligations (eg National Insurance contributions if you’re based in the UK) and pension scheme costs

Apprentice Levy charges for UK-based salaries

any incremental progression up the salary scale

locally recognised allowances such as London allowance.

You should allow for salary pay awards during Year 1. These should be based on pay awards already agreed: if you don’t know what the pay award is yet then use our inflation rate.

From Year 2 onwards, you should use your organisation’s current pay rates. We’ll provide a separate inflation allowance for salary inflation costs.

We may make a contribution towards the salary of departmental technicians funded by Research England and its equivalents in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. You will need to provide a full audit record of their time on your project.

Visa, work permit and settled status costs

If you have named researchers on your grant whose salaries will be funded by Wellcome, you can ask for visa or work permit costs to help them take up their posts at the host organisation. You can also ask for:

visa costs for the researcher’s partner and dependent children

Immigration Health Surcharge costs for the researcher, their partner and dependent children if they will be in the UK for six months or more

essential associated costs, such as travel to attend appointments at a visa application centre or embassy if you can justify these.

You can also ask for settled status costs if the named researchers:

are European Union citizens living in the UK

meet the requirements for settled status set by the UK government.

You can also include these costs for the researcher’s partner and dependants.

We will pay for the materials and consumables you need to carry out your proposed research, including:

You can ask for funds to buy animals if they are essential to your project. We will also fund the charge-out rates for animal house facilities if your organisation uses full economic costing methodology. These costs include:

other costs which are necessary for your research, eg computing and internet access costs, access to electronic resources, facility and running costs such as utilities, furniture, waste disposal and incineration, and building maintenance.

The total research management and support costs should not be more than 20% of the direct research costs you're requesting.

give a full breakdown of costs in your grant application form (you can't ask for a percentage of the research costs)

explain why these costs are necessary for your research

include a letter from the finance director of your host organisation with your application, confirming that the breakdown is a true representation of the costs incurred.

Travel costs

You should use the most suitable and economical form of travel. Please include a breakdown for each part of your trip, eg air fares and number of journeys.

Collaborative travel

You can ask for travel and subsistence costs for collaborative visits for you and any research staff employed on your grant. You’ll need to justify each visit and its duration.

Conference attendance

You can ask for a contribution towards the costs of attending scientific and academic meetings and conferences, including registration fees. The limits are:

All applicants named on your grant – £2,000 a year

Staff employed on your grant – £1,000 each a year

You’ll need to specify the amount you’re requesting for each person.

Other travel

We will pay for other essential visits, eg to facilities, for sample collection and for fieldwork. You can include subsistence costs.

Subsistence costs

If you’re away for up to one month you can ask for subsistence costs. These include accommodation, meals and incidentals (eg refreshments or newspapers).

If your administering organisation has a subsistence policy, use their rates.

If your administering organisation doesn’t have a subsistence policy, please use the HMRC rates.

If you’re away for more than one month and up to 12 months, we will pay reasonable rental costs only, including aparthotels. You should discuss appropriate rates with your administering and host organisations, or Wellcome, as appropriate. We expect you to choose the most economical options, booked in advance where possible.

If you’re from a low- or middle- income country and will be working in a high-income country for more than one month and up to 12 months, you can also ask for up to £20 a day to cover extra costs, such as transport and incidentals.

If you’re away for more than 12 months, we will pay the costs of your housing. You should discuss your needs with your administering and host organisations.

The allowance we provide will be based on family and business need. We will set the maximum allowance we pay for each location. This will be based on current market data or, where data is unavailable, in consultation with your administering organisation, using equivalent market rates. Please contact us if you need help calculating the costs.

We will cover the direct expenses you have to pay to find and rent a home. We will not cover the cost of utilities or any refurbishment.

Overseas research

If you or any research staff employed on your grant will be doing research away from your home laboratory, we'll help with the additional costs of working on the project overseas. Please see the 'Overseas allowances' section for details.

If you or any staff employed on your grant will be spending time in another country, we’ll help you with the additional costs of working on the project overseas.

Our overseas allowances are:

a contribution towards the personal cost of carrying out research overseas, to ensure that you are not disadvantaged

provided on the assumption that you’ll be paying income tax, either in your home country, or the country you will be working in (your personal tax is your responsibility).

provided on the understanding that you or your partner will not receive equivalent allowances from elsewhere

determined by the amount of time you will spend away from your home country.

If you will be away more than 12 months, we will provide overseas allowances for your partner and any dependants if they are travelling with you.

If you will be away for 12 months or less and can justify why your partner and dependants must travel with you, we may provide overseas allowances for them.

We define your partner as the person:

you’re married to

you’re not married to but with whom you’ve been in a relationship for at least a year

and

you live with at the same permanent address and share some form of joint financial commitment with (eg a mortgage).

Costs can include guards, panic buttons and alarms. You should ask your employing organisation for advice on the level of security you need.

If you’re away for up to one month you can ask for subsistence costs. These include accommodation, meals and incidentals (eg refreshments or newspapers).

If your administering organisation has a subsistence policy, use their rates.

If your administering organisation doesn’t have a subsistence policy, please use the HMRC rates.

If you’re away for more than one month and up to 12 months, we will pay reasonable rental costs only, including aparthotels. You should discuss appropriate rates with your administering and host organisations, or Wellcome, as appropriate. We expect you to choose the most economical options, booked in advance where possible.

If you’re from a low- or middle- income country and will be working in a high-income country for more than one month and up to 12 months, you can also ask for up to £20 a day to cover extra costs, such as transport and incidentals.

If you’re away for more than 12 months, we will pay the costs of your housing. You should discuss your needs with your administering and host organisations.

The allowance we provide will be based on family and business need. We will set the maximum allowance we pay for each location. This will be based on current market data or, where data is unavailable, in consultation with your administering organisation, using equivalent market rates. If you need help calculating the costs please contact Grants Management.

We will cover the direct expenses you have to pay to find and rent a home. We will not cover the cost of utilities or any refurbishment.

If you’re away for more than 12 months we will pay:

Local nursery or school fees

You can ask for these costs if you are in a location where there isn’t free local education of the same standard as in your home country.

Costs include:

local nursery school fees up to a maximum of 15 hours a week for 3 to 4 year olds

local junior or secondary school fees, up to the end of secondary school education.

Local international school fees

You can ask for these costs if local schools do not provide the same standard of education as in your home country. We will only pay the published termly school fees.

We will cover the cost of providing special needs education as far as possible. Please contact us to discuss your needs.

We would not usually expect to provide an education allowance if you will be working in a high-income country.

If you will be away for more than 12 months, we’ll pay for you to travel back to your home country for annual leave. This is in addition to your outward and return travel costs and depends on how long you will be away:

12-24 months – 1 annual leave trip

25-36 months – 2 annual leave trips

37-48 months – 3 annual leave trips

49-60 months – 4 annual leave trips

61-72 months – 5 annual leave trips.

All fares should be:

economy class

the most suitable and economical form of travel

booked in advance where possible.

If you will be away for more than 12 months, you can ask for up to 100 hours of lessons in the local language for you and/or your partner during the first 12 months of your visit.

We will cover 100% of the costs for local language school classes or up to 50% of the costs of individual tuition.

We will not cover the cost of examinations or personal learning materials such as DVDs and books.

We cover fieldwork costs if they’re essential and you can justify them. Costs can include:

survey and data collection, including communication and data collection services and any associated costs such as essential field materials, travel costs and language translation services

the purchase, hire and running costs of vehicles dedicated to your project

expenses for subjects and volunteers, including the recruitment of participants, their participatory fees and travel costs

statistical analysis.

You can ask for other fieldwork costs that aren’t listed here, but you’ll need to justify them.

We will add an inflation allowance to your award.

How we calculate your inflation allowance

Your inflation allowance is based on your total eligible costs and the duration of the award. You'll receive the following allowance if the costs in your application are in pounds sterling, euros or US dollars.

Our inflation allowance is increasing. The following rates apply to grants awarded from 1 October 2017:

Award duration (in months)

Inflation allowance

0-12

0.0%

13-24

1.0%

25-36

2.0%

37-48

3.0%

49-60

4.1%

61-72

5.1%

73-84

6.2%

These rates are calculated using compound inflation at 2.0% a year from Year 2 onwards.

If your costs are in any other currency, we will use an inflation allowance that reflects the inflation rate of the country where the host organisation is based.

What to include in your application

The costs in your application must be based on current known costs, excluding inflation.

You should allow for salary pay awards during Year 1. These should be based on pay awards already agreed; if you don’t know what the pay award is yet then use our inflation rate.

The Trust’s studentship stipend scales for non-clinical/basic science PhD studentships include an annual increase for inflation.

You can ask for costs for page charges and/or costs for colour prints for your original research papers.

You can also ask for the costs of publishing other material which is essential to the project, such as:

estates costs – such as building and premises costs, basic services and utilities. This also includes phone, postage, photocopying and stationery, unless you can justify these within a clinical or epidemiological study.*

research, technical and administrative staff whose time is shared across several projects and isn’t supported by an audit record*

PhD stipends

charge-out costs for major facilities* – departmental technical and administrative services, and use of existing equipment

cleaning, waste and other disposal costs*

*We will fund these costs in the case of animal-related research.

indirect costs – this includes general administration costs such as personnel, finance, library, room hire and some departmental services

Disabled applicants

Dates

We consider applications three times a year. You must submit your application by 17:00 (GMT/BST) on the deadline day. We don’t accept late applications.

April 2018 round

Preliminary application deadline

24 April 2018, 17:00 BST

Full application deadline

24 July 2018, 17:00 BST

Shortlisting

September 2018

Interviews

27–29 November 2018

August 2018 round

Preliminary application deadline

20 August 2018, 17:00 BST

Full application deadline

12 November 2018, 17:00 GMT

Shortlisting

January 2019

Interviews

2–4 April 2019

November 2018 round

Preliminary application deadline

19 November 2018, 17:00 GMT

Full application deadline

28 February 2019, 17:00 GMT

Shortlisting

April 2019

Interviews

16–18 July 2019

More information

Find out about how we've worked with the funding community to develop principles and obligations setting out what we expect from those responsible for clinical training, trainees and funders across the UK.

Definitions

Leading a research programme

For researchers with a PhD or the equivalent, and significant postdoctoral research experience.